Swedish band Baron Bane have been compared to bands and artists like Mew, Nine Inch Nails, Lykke Li and Ladytron. Their new single shows partly a new direction. My Slow World is the third single from forthcoming album LPTO.

"Atlantique" is a part of us. To be honest we started to work on this album in Paris, in a traditional studio with a professional engineer, but it wasn't us. I mean we didn't recognize ourself in the way to do music, it was the way for us to figure out that the place we are at when we compose have a real influence on our music. So we decided to rent a house with our own keyboards and stuffs, in a place we perfectly know and love. The place where we met each other 10 years ago: the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean was always there in our life and it's a kind of family member. And we like the idea to be on the other side of the US, which is a dream for us."

New UK act called IVienna. They trade in haunting verses and huge, anthemic choruses, all topped off with a frontman with a great voice. They've just recorded some tracks at the legendary Abbey Road studio in london, one of which is now up that you can check out.

As a teenager, Shuggie was acknowledged as a guitar phenom, mentioned by some in the same breath as Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King. But he wasn't satisfied to be just a guitarist - he mastered bass, keyboards, drums and vibraphone. He also became a gifted writer and arranger. Shuggie started playing professionally at the age of 12, using disguises to appear older (phony beards & moustaches, dark glasses, hats, elevator shoes, etc.) so he could get into nightclubs. When he was 15, he was drafted by Al Kooper to be part of the second "Super Session" album (this was Kooper's project after he founded Blood Sweat & Tears and completed the first album). Shuggie released his first album as a leader in 1970, called Here Comes Shuggie Otis - he was around 17 at the time. In 1971, he released "Freedon Flight," an album that was way ahead of its time - and in 1974, he released "Inspiration Information," his masterpiece. And that was really it - he started to fade as a bandleader/solo artist and and basically disapeared by 1980. He is still alive and well, hip hop artists and others are covering his fanastic tunes (remember Strawberry Letter 23 by Brothers Johnson? That is Shuggie's tune).

Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Prince and other trippy/funky/soulful genre-mixers owe a lot to Shuggie Otis. I often think that Prince deliberately copped all of Shuggie's shit. The Rolling Stones tried to hire this guy in the mid-70's, but he said "no, thanks" because he figured he was going to rock the world on his own. Things didn't turn out that way, but his music stands the test of time - still sounding exciting and fresh 35 years after it was recorded. Shuggie used drum machines in the early 1970's; he played almost all of the instruments on his albums, he incorporated jazz, blues, rock and R&B. It still is wickedly great stuff.
I think Shuggie Otis is still living in Northern California. He records on occassion and has played a few concerts. While he missed stardom and celebrity, he also missed the drugged-out evil scene, so he is alive when many other pop stars died before they reached 50 - freethoughts.blogspot.com

Rising to fame as the magnetic leader of the Afghan Whigs during the 80's & 90's; Greg Dulli followed his muse and began to innovatively fuse indie, soul and electronic sounds in his post-Whigs collective The Twilight Singers, who released their first album, Twilight As Played By The Twilight Singers, in 2000.

Thursday, 10 February 2011

The Strokes Under Cover Of Darkness is the first single from rock band The Strokes' upcoming studio album "Angles" due out on March 22nd. This marks The Strokes' first new release since 2006's 'First Impressions of Earth'.

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

Not the Eagles, not A Flock of Seagulls but Eagulls. Five piece band from Leeds, UK. "These are the songs of men who still have dirt under their fingernails, each track seemingly coated with a veneer of sweat."
Or: this f*ck*g rocks!